LiveReal Beauty Secrets
What Maybelleine doesn't want you to know
"Why not be oneself?
That is the whole secret
of a successful appearance.
If one is a greyhound
why try to look like a Pekinese?"
- Edith Sitwell
We tested the theory that the secret of beauty was gnawing on spicy stuff. It isn't.
What, really, is physical beauty all about?
Is it a matter of finding the right skin cream? Is it a matter of the fat content on a body? Is it found by trying to imitate magazine covers? Does it come through exercising, starving, getting firm, getting tan? Is it a matter of the right skirt, the right blouse, the right shoes, the right hair?
Or is it something else?
Many people assume that the biggest factor in beauty is simply dieting. But below, David Deida relates a very different perspective that we don't hear much about these days.
(Mainly because there's not a huge marketing campaign pushing it.)
A passage by David Deida:
"For several months while writing this book, I lived on the Indonesian island of Bali.
While I was there, I established a friendship with a Balinese family who owned and operated a little restaurant with three bamboo tables, and where I frequently ate.
The family consisted of three sisters and their mother. The three sisters, all in their early 20's, were extraordinarily beautiful. Any one of them could have been a magazine cover girl. Two of the sisters were, in fact, professional models. Their bodies, their faces, their hair - everything about their appearance was captivating. I could hardly eat, their beauty was so enchanting.
For the first few weeks, they were the only people I saw at the small restaurant. Then one day, their mother came out from the kitchen into the dining area. I will never forget that moment. The three beautiful sisters were sitting in the dining area, talking. Their mother walked out and began talking with them. I was shocked by what I saw.
The mother was about 60 years old. Her brown skin was wrinkled from the sun, and she was clearly no longer a young woman. But her beauty was incomparable. From the mother's eyes shone a rare light of love, compassion and humor. Her every move was filled with an "otherworldly grace." She looked at me, and her smile lit up my heart. I couldn't believe it. As beautiful as her young daughters were, this old woman was far more beautiful.
It wasn't her physical appearance but her disposition that so enchanted me. She was so relaxed, so loving, so happy, so wise and so radiant that I felt like bowing in honor of her Feminine fullness. Her daughters were but small buds compared with the fullness of her flowering. Perhaps one day her daughters would achieve the graceful depth of Feminine maturity that their mother had, but for now, they were just good-looking girls. However, their mother - old and wrinkled as she was - inspired awe by the depth and fullness of her Feminine force. My heart widened at the sight of her and continued to do so every time I saw her over the next two months.
The Feminine is beautiful. The Feminine is radiant. Physical attractiveness could express an aspect of this radiance, but it doesn't last, and even while it does it's only skin deep. However, the Feminine force in people is always attractive, loving and radiant, if it is rightfully honored and allowed to show itself in its unique fullness."
- from Intimate Communion by David Deida.
More about Deida in the LiveReal Relationship Arena at
An Introduction To David Deida.
So What Drives the Cosmetics, Diet, and Beauty Industries?
Certain industries make billions from helping women (and some men) feel beautiful.
How does it do this? What is it about lipstick, blush, mascara, curling irons, that makes us spend billions of dollars on them?
Well, these things help people feel like they appear more beautiful to others - and to themselves, when they look at themselves in mirrors.
And to dig deeper - how does it do this?
According to some perspectives, almost all beauty aids - from lipstick and blush to curling irons and deodorant - are designed to simulate, or give the appearance of, one thing and one thing only: youthfulness - or to be more accurate, "vitality."
But what is "vitality"?
Vitality seems to be that "energy" that naturally gives cheeks their rosy glow, lips their fiery redness, eyes their shining brightness . . . it is what most children seem to have naturally, without spending fortunes to lather creams and lotions all over themselves. Most of us gradually seem to lose that vitality as we get older (which typically bugs us, and raises all kinds of spiritual questions . . .)
And so, if "vitality" is what the cosmetics industry is trying to imitate through selling the appearance of vitality . . . then how can a person get - or keep - their actual vitality, their youthful, natural, authentic, unmade-up vitality - which doesn't need to be put-on or made-up?
Well, that's a good question, and one that your valiant LiveReal Agents are bravely, courageously pursuing . . .
So far, what we've discovered is the possibility that "vitality" is something that actually can be saved, preserved, invested, and used intelligently (which could be the driving force behind real morality.) This means, for example, getting smart about things that dissipate or waste your vitality, such as addictions, or according to some, even relationships, sex and certain kinds of emotional habits, all of which help form your character, which may well be the key ingredient behind all beauty...
...but we're still working on it.
Stay tuned...